New Kind of Lawn

Ever since our class took a tour of the University of Delaware’s Botanic Gardens, I’ve been thinking a lot about what we saw. The area that fascinated me most was the South Greenhouse Garden. When we first encountered it, our guide surprised me when she said this was the “garden”. When one thinks of a garden, it’s usually lots of flowers and bright colors. This was the idea I had in mind when we approached, so I was surprised to see this instead:

I thought for sure it was something they hadn’t cleaned up yet and the greenhouse garden was in the building. But our tour guide explained that an ideal garden is something like this: less grass, more plants. It’s ideal for the environment and it sustains itself. This idea is best for lawns too. It got me thinking about how all the lawns and yards in my neighborhood are the typical “ideal” in America: lots and lots of grass, with a few trees and bushes sprinkled here and there.

Since I was especially fascinated with this area, I pushed for my group to write for the brochure for this garden. I want to research more into this idea of living without a lawn.

This kind of sustainable garden is hard for the average person to achieve. I wonder if there’s a way we can incorporate something similar, or just better than what we already have. My neighborhood, like many, is strict about even planting new trees without going through a bunch of hurdles. I think there should be more importance placed on the environment.

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